@Mattsxvx How did it go? Be really careful of overtraining on that one - it did me in! Leg's are just starting to feel 'normal sore' now four days later.

Training this week has been going really well. I am keeping to moderate loads since I am still rehabing, but the intensity has been all out this week so I'm feeling good about it! I hope to keep my weight as high as possible as I diet down in the next six weeks - the old impossibility of gaining muscle while losing fat! I've been running about a mile on the treadmill before workouts to warm up, and running two miles outside before dinner every night. No pre-breakfast cardio yet, but I'll be adding it soon. My diet is down to about 4500 cal/day from around 5000, and that change is mostly just cleaning out the holiday sweets and reducing overall fat intake. I am going to keep my carbs pretty high like I did for the last show because I was able to get lean (4% bf) and felt really good, but I'm also going to try and keep my protein a little higher this time to see if I can maintain more muscle mass. Everything is an experiment! Here's what my training looked like:

Now I feel like I've been hit by a truck, so tomorrow is a much needed day off. I plan on running before breakfast for 15-20 min and again before dinner, and posing practice in the afternoon - still need to choose my song, slacking! Next week I'll be going heavier and I'm going to try to reintroduce deadlifts. Let's see what happens!

It's been a week since my last post so I am now 5 WEEKS out! Cardio is one to two times per day of 20min on the step mill or running outside, plus posing practice most evenings for 30+min. Before breakfast and/or before dinner. I'm keeping a protein shake with oats in it by my bed now b/c I've been getting hungry in the night - it's a big help and I feel like I have a bit more gas in the tank for my morning training! Calories are down a bit from last week, to roughly 4k per day shooting for 30%/55%/15% P/C/F. I checked my bf this weekend and I'm between 7 and 8, so still a little high, but the good news is I'm still at 192lbs, which means I've gained some muscle while dieting! Stoked!

For training This week I've still been sticking loosely to the Y3T Protocol, which made this past week the heavy duty compound training week (obviously my favorite). Volume was kept low, usually 3 exercises per muscle group, all compound lifts for 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps heavy. Felt so nice and easy after last week! Tomorrow starts the 'standard bodybuilding' week, so I'll be doing a more typical programming of a couple compound moves and a couple isolation moves, with sets of 8-12 reps, training for a pump. Here's what some of last week looked like:

Tough training this week... been so so busy! RC, I feel your long work days for once! Workouts have gone well, I'm moving good weight and still getting leaner. I will be stepping up my cardio and dropping my calories a bit more now that I am 4 weeks out! Still holding at 190lbs and I expect i'll be in the low to mid 180s really lean. Last week was a basic FST7 type protocol, next week is muscle annihilation again! Legs on Tuesday... I'm already terrified. Here's what last week looked like:

225 x 10 on the incline bench is strong !! I'm with you in that I'll occasionally add in a set of FST-7 at the end of my workout, just to really try and maximise the blood content into the muscle group.

Thanks! @Mini, yes I've found it to work really well myself.@RC I'll Get Pics up soon I promise! I've been training all wrapped up in kenisio tape so you can't see too much, but I'm done with that now.

Last week things really started coming together. I'm not as lean as I was 3 weeks out from my last show, but I feel like I lost some size in getting that lean so this time around I've been trying to diet slower by keeping my protein and calories a little higher and doing a little less cardio. Everything's a gamble! The crazy thing is, I'm still sitting between 188 and 190lbs - I started dieting at 192ish and I am way leaner now (from about 9% to 6% bf) and virtually no weight loss! Last time when I started dieting I was only 186, so big improvement! I've been training hard and I think keeping my calories/protein a little higher while I diet has allowed me to actually add muscle! I'm going to be switching to exclusively Sunwarrior protein next week (I've been using that and Plantfusion) which is very low sodium, so I may drop a few pounds from that, we'll see.

I'm still training the same split, and roughly following the Y3T protocol, which I am really enjoying, plus I've added 20 min of cardio after most workouts (except legs) and in the evenings before dinner, either step mill, incline treadmill walking, or running outside. I've also been doing a posing practice about every other day. I'm doing less than during my last prep, but I've been so busy there hasn't been much choice, plus I have no time/energy to stress about it which is actually a big help!

Last week was the 'total annihilation' week of Y3T, so here's what I did:

Whew, 2 weeks out - getting to it! Finally got some pictures up! Been crazy busy so I haven't been hitting my cardio and posing as consistently as I'd like - usually once a day lately for 30min for cardio and posing about 3 times last week, but I did do 1hr incline walk on the treadmill twice this week before breakfast so I'm doing what I can with my schedule! Not as tight as I'd like to be but I'm getting noticeably leaner now and I'm reducing my sodium this week so should be a big difference! I've been drinking 5 to 6 liters of water (about 1.5 gallons) a day, so I think dropping sodium should pull some water out and make me look tighter. This is quite a bit more water than I had during my last prep, but I've noticed staying super hydrated has made a huge difference keeping my strength up! Training has been going great. This week was a low volume, heavy weight week and I did some good numbers for being tired and hungry!

1hr walking on incline treadmill before breakfast, 15minutes of jumprope before lunch, will do more jumprope before dinner, 20-30 minute dog walk planned after dinner, then hopefully some posing. Two weeks to go - gonna bring it!